jspayne - Slashdot User

Fantasy Author Robert Jordan Passes Away 571

Posted by Zonk on Monday September 17, 2007 @01:22AM from the doff-our-helms dept.

willith writes "James Oliver Rigney Jr, author of the long-running fantasy series The Wheel of Time and better known to millions of fans by the pen name Robert Jordan, died on 16 Sept 2007 from cardiac amyloidosis. Jordan announced he had been diagnosed with the disease in March 2006 and vowed to beat the odds, but determination and gumption sometimes just aren't enough in the face of a disease with a median survival time of just over two years. Jordan was in the process of writing the twelfth and final book in the Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light, but the book was not slated for release until 2009 and is still incomplete. While there is hope that the book will still be finished from Jordan's notes, this is devastating news to all of us who have been reading the series since 1990."

Submission + - Madeleine L'Engle, 1918 - 2007

Submitted by mosel-saar-ruwer on Friday September 14, 2007 @01:23PM

mosel-saar-ruwer writes: Madeleine L'Engle Camp Franklin passed away, on Sept. 6, aged 88, at Rose Haven nursing home, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Even before we discovered Tolkien, CS Lewis, or Robert Heinlein, many /.-ers' first exposure to Science Fiction & Fantasy was surely L'Engle's 1962 novel, A Wrinkle in Time. The Washington Post has an obituary, the New York Post's John Podhoretz relates his childhood memories of life at 924 West End Avenue with Mr. & Mrs. Franklin, and the Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby recalls the horror of IT. Finally, the Wall Street Journal's Meghan Cox Gurdon describes a cynic's encounter with Wrinkle.

Submission + - Is our Universe Somebody Else's Hobby? (hughpickens.com)

Submitted by

Pcol

on Tuesday August 14, 2007 @03:07PM

Pcol writes: "The New York Times is running a story on Philosopher Nick Bostrum, Director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, who has a web site on "The Simulation Argument" that contends that there is a pretty good chance that we are living in someone else's computer simulation.

Dr. Bostrom assumes that technological advances could produce a computer with more processing power than all the brains in the world, and that advanced humans, or "posthumans," could run "ancestor simulations" of their evolutionary history by creating virtual worlds inhabited by virtual people with fully developed virtual nervous systems. If civilization survived long enough to reach that stage, and if the posthumans were to run lots of simulations for research purposes or entertainment, then the number of virtual ancestors they created would be vastly greater than the number of real ancestors. There would be no way for any of these ancestors to know for sure whether they were virtual or real, because the sights and feelings they'd experience would be indistinguishable. But since there would be so many more virtual ancestors, any individual could figure that the odds made it nearly certain that he or she was living in a virtual world.
Robin Hanson, an economist at George Mason University, says that if you desire to live as long as you can in this virtual world — and in any simulated afterlife that the designer of this world might bestow on you, you should try to be as interesting as possible, on the theory that the designer is more likely to keep you around for the next simulation."

Submission + - Corsair Padlock USB Drive, Built-In Combo Keypad

Submitted by

MojoKid

on Tuesday August 14, 2007 @02:56PM

MojoKid writes: "With data and identity theft so prevalent today, an ever increasing number of users are concerned about securing their personal data. Corsair, however, just launched a new product that may hold the key to easy and convenient data security, literally and figuratively. The Corsair Flash Padlock functions much like any other USB thumbdrive, but it features a built-in keypad for entering a PIN code that locks or unlocks the data stored on the device. Without the PIN, the data cannot be accessed. This article highlights the main features of the Corsair Flash Padlock and profiles its performance. It looks like the Flash Padlock works as advertised, but transfer speeds aren't stellar."

Submission + - Corsair Padlock USB Drive, PIN Combination Secure (hothardware.com)

Submitted by

MojoKid

on Tuesday August 14, 2007 @12:11PM

MojoKid writes: "Securing data is always a concern, from the enterprise application to the end user. Portable USB flash drives have become commonplace, with lots of files flying around from end user to end user, both personal and business related. Securing portable flash USB drives through software encryption is one way to handle things but there are obvious ways to breach these methods. Memory manufacturer, Corsair has just announced their line of Padlock USB flash drives that provide and alternate method of securing portable data. Got something you need to carry around but want to keep from being accessed by just anyone? Just punch in your pin number and this USB stick will lock it down."

Submission + - Turbo SIM Totally Unlocks iPhone (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14, 2007 @10:56AM

An anonymous reader writes: Hackers are claiming that you now can 100%-unlock the iPhone using a Turbo SIM card, without depending on the version of your current carrier card. Testers say it will give you full calling, SMS and GPRS data capabilities with any network and no extra hardware needed, since it only requires you to modify the $80 blank SIM using your own iPhone.

Submission + - Log on automatically in Windows Vista (mcox.com)

Submitted by

Artemis

on Monday July 30, 2007 @11:02AM

Artemis writes: "If you have a single-user PC and would rather have it automatically log on than display the Welcome Screen, this post is for you. Obviously do not do this on a computer that contains secure or confidential information. Also, don't follow the instructions for some older versions of Windows that involve editing the registry and adding your username & password to it. Those methods leave your username and password in unencrypted plaintext, and while having your computer automatically log on isn't the safest thing, there is no reason to store your password in plaintext when you can avoid it. Best of all, this way is much easier than editing the registry and stores your password as an encrypted LSA secret.

From the search/run box in the Start Menu, type netplwiz. Clear the check box for 'Users must enter a username and password to use this computer. The 'Automatically Log On' dialog box will appear, enter your username and password here and click 'OK'. This is the username and password Vista will use to automatically log on with every time it starts. Next time you start your PC it should load directly to the desktop!"

Submission + - IronKey launches encrypted USB key w/FF, TOR (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27, 2007 @06:15PM

An anonymous reader writes: Gizmodo has a writeup on the new IronKey.. Self-destructing hardware encrypted and authenticated USB flash drive with onboard secure FF, high speed TOR network, password manager, online encrypted backup. Demo page here. Pretty sweet. $79 bones for a 1g, 149 for 4. Prolly the best way to stick it to AT&T/NSA, traffic 'shaping' ISPs, and other infringements on privacy by the man..

Submission + - Nursing Home Cat Can Sense Death (yahoo.com) 1

Submitted by

Raver32

on Thursday July 26, 2007 @08:06AM

Raver32 writes: "When Oscar the Cat visits residents of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, the staff jump into action — Oscar can sense within hours when someone is about to die. In his two years living in Steere's end-stage dementia unit, Oscar has been at the bedside of more than 25 residents shortly before they died, according to Dr. David Dosa of Brown University in Providence. He wrote about Oscar in the New England Journal of Medicine. "It's not that the cat is consistently there first," Dr. Joan Teno, a professor of community health at Brown University, who sees patients in the unit. "But the cat always does manage to make an appearance, and it always seems to be in the last two hours.""

Submission + - MPAA: Plagarism good, Piracy bad? 1

Submitted by BillGatesLoveChild on Thursday July 26, 2007 @12:11AM

BillGatesLoveChild writes: The MPAA is fast to complain about their Intellectual Property being violated, but have no qualms about violating the Intellectual Property of others. The SMH reports another case of a Hollywood Studio plagarizing a film as their own. Adam Sandler's I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007) is a tale of two firemen who pretend to be gay to get domestic partner benefits. Curiously Paul Hogan's Strange Bedfellows (2004) made three years earlier, is also a tale of two firemen who pretend to be gay to get domestic partner benefits. Universal Studios issued a statement claiming "the similarities are purely coincidental". The producers of "Strange Bedfellows" are amused but not convinced.

This isn't the first time, with similar accusations being made against Spielberg's Julie Newmar (1995) vs Priscilla (1994) and Eddie Murphy's "Coming to America" which the courts found was stolen from writer Art Buchwald. Add to that "Hollywood Accounting" fleecing artists (The Forest Gump movie didn't pay the author a cent in royalties), the Record Industry doing the same and the MPAA itself caught yet unrepentant for pirating movies. Before The Senate rushes off to do their bidding, shouldn't the MPAA and RIAA be ordered to clean up their own houses?

Submission + - Harry Potter and a Goblin's Take on Copyright (scienceaddiction.com)

Submitted by

DevanJedi

on Wednesday July 25, 2007 @10:13PM

DevanJedi writes: "Here's a passage from page 517 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows : (Ron's brother Bill is warning Harry against trusting a goblin Griphook.) "You don't understand, Harry, nobody could understand unless they have lived with goblins. To a goblin, the rightful and true master of any object is the maker, not the purchaser. All goblin-made objects are, in goblin eyes, rightfully theirs. [...] They have, however, great difficulty with the idea of goblin-made objects passing from wizard to wizard. [...] They consider our habit of keeping goblin-made objects, passing them from wizard to wizard without further payment, little more than theft." These goblins sound like our friendly neighborhood MPAA/RIAA lawyers!"

Submission + - Court convicts Skype for breaching GPL

Submitted by terber on Tuesday July 24, 2007 @10:06AM

terber writes: In Munich a German court once again upheld the GPL2 and convicted Skype (based in Luxembourg) of violating GPL by selling the Linux-based VoIP phone "SMCWSKP 100" without proper source code access. Skype later on added a flyer to the phones with an URL where to obtain the sources, but the court found this insufficient as this was in breach of GPL section 3. Plaintiff was once again Netfilter developer Harald Welte, who runs http://gpl-violations.org/. The decision is currently only available in German at http://www.ifross.de./ News source (German): www.golem.de/0707/53684.html

Submission + - This is the END of 8 an 16bits Microcontrollers?

Submitted by

emcelettronica

on Thursday July 19, 2007 @02:59AM

emcelettronica writes: "STM announces 32bits low price ARM microcontrollers

STM32 MCU family significantly reduces cost/performance/power compromises in embedded systems. http://www.st.com/stonline/stappl/cms/press/news/y ear2007/p2176.htm

STMicroelectronics Announces Ultra-Low-Cost Development Kit for STR9 ARM966E Core-based MCUs with Ethernet Connectivity. http://www.st.com/stonline/stappl/cms/press/news/y ear2007/p2176.htm With ARM core You can cover low-price applications (ARM7) and high-level, Linux based, projects (ARM9). Finally We have an ARM core based 32bits MCU at less than 2$ and development kit at less than 50$.... This is the END of 8bits an 16bits Microcontrollers?"

Submission + - Torvalds Says GPLv3 Backers Full Of "Hot Air&# (informationweek.com)

Submitted by

AlexGr

on Tuesday July 17, 2007 @12:36PM

AlexGr writes: "Last week Paul McDougall wrote in InformationWeek that Linux creator Linus Torvalds called advocates of the Free Software Foundation's GPLv3 license "hypocrites." A few readers complained he had not provided a complete picture of Torvald's feelings. They were right. Linus also thinks FSF leaders are "controlling," "condescending," and full of "hot air." And he's got more choice words for GPLv3 itself. http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/ 2007/07/the_linus_files.html"

Submission + - Farscape's unlikely but welcome return

Submitted by

westlake

on Tuesday July 17, 2007 @09:32AM

westlake writes: " In a weekend press tour, Sci Fi announced that Farscape would be resurrected on-line in ten short webisodes to be produced by the Jim Henson Company. There are hints that Ben Browder and Claudia Black will both be both "available." Browder has another project to keep him occupied, at least part of the time: Sci Fi also announced that it had picked up Going Homer, a miniseries he developed with "Farscape" director Andrew Prowse. Greek and Roman deities walk among us, but only 12 year old Homer Ulysses Jones can see them for what they truly are. When Homer and his father are forced to flee a custody battle that would likely separate them, they journey from Los Angeles to the home of their ancestors — in Ithaca, N.Y."

Slashdot Top Deals